An Epic Quest

>Yes.

(We have nothing to hide. If they need to search us, then we should let them.)

>Hand over our weapons. If we try and hold onto them it will go worse for us. We'll probably get them back.
>Allow yourself to be searched
>Scry into the future as soon as we are someplace we can rest

You don't even think about putting up a fight, immediately handing over the little gun with the bullets, the pile of swords you'd intended on giving to these people in the first place, and, more reluctantly, your keyblade. Tahnar piles them next to the door before starting to pat you down and check your pockets for anything unsavory. While he's searching, you take a few seconds to look into the future, your vision goes blurry, but there is currently only one vision available to you: you standing in front of the leader of these people, who appears to be laughing at you while you look on helplessly. Needless to say, this doesn't do much to improve your confidence.

You snap out of the trance and Tahnar is standing in front of you, everything you had in your pockets cradled in one oversized hand. He hands you back the coins, and you do a quick count to check that all 40 of them are still there. He then hands you back the rune and the wind-up key, before he turns his attention to the blue vials.

"Why do you have these?"

You look over at the girls, who are trying their hardest to hide that they're each mouthing variations of "Don't tell him"

"I found them on the street. I don't know what they are exactly..."

"How do you not know what these are?"

" He is rather new to the area, I'm afraid."

"Of course... well, sorry about this." He drops them on the floor and crushes the vials beneath his shoe, grinding a bit.

The guard on the left looks over to the pile of weapons and his eyes go wide. He whispers to Tahnar and points at the keyblade.

"Ulo behn?"

The other guard nods his head vehemently, causing the Tahnar to grab up the keyblade in one hand and roughly pulls you toward the door with the other, "What's going on?"

"'Not from around here' my ass... come along, you've earned yourself a public consultation with the leader of our fine community."

"Yay?"

"Probably not the appropriate response."

You are pushed through the doors, and your first sight of the interior, although mostly blocked by the guards, is a group of run-down, hastily constructed houses, grimy looking kids playing tag with each other in a central courtyard, and what feels like must be a group of at least a thousand teens and adults watching as you are paraded to a central throne, where a gray haired man with a vest of woven silver and a bronze robe that obscures the lower half of his body. If the whole world is a stage, you'd probably guess that this central player would have to be in the last stage of all, you desperately hope he has all of his wits about him.

Tahnar goes to the leader and whispers to him while showing him the hilt end of the blade. The old man grasps the hilt with a strength you didn't expect him to have, and then looks down at you, " Salusa shelo brena, pahdwen?"

" Ros pahdwen ka'an vari, abora..."

" Of course he doesn't," He doesn't sound sarcastic, it's more as though he's stating a fact that should have been obvious, "[[So, you've come to us at last, pahdwen. Tell me,, what is your name?]]"

"Samjon. I don't know what you expect me to do, but..."

" We only expect you to do what you can," he laughs, and you can see that where his incisors should be, there are two long fangs, " we have waited a great many year for you, and things are much worse now than when a pahdwen was among us last. But you are here now, and our people will rejoice in our coming victory." He raises his voice, " The pahdwen has returned to us! I declare a feast, celebrating what we have, and rejoicing in what we will have in the future."

He slithers from off the throne, and now that he is no longer seated, you much expect that what he's slithering toward you on are not legs, but a serpent's tale. He gives you your keyblade.

>What do you do?

(Quit staring, for one thing...)

>Accept the keyblade back graciously.

>Ask: What is a "pahdwen"?

>See if there are any sidequests to do around town

edited 1st Jul '15 12:57:11 PM by dvorak

>Quit staring, for one thing...

Done.

Now that you're scanning the crowd, you notice two main things. First of all, roughly 2/3 of the crowd looks very, very happy that you're here, and the remaining 1/3 aren't being actively hostile to any degree, but they do look... cautious. The second thing you notice while trying to be polite is that the leader is not the only non-human among these people; roughly one in ten faces belongs to another, normally still humanoid, species.

>Accept the keyblade back graciously.

You look back to the leader and smile politely, grabbing the hilt and putting the keyblade back in place behind you.

>Ask: What is a "pahdwen"?

"Not to be rude sir... but what is a pahdwen?"

" I know this must be confusing... it almost always is, but a pahdwen, in short, is you: an outsider baring a mark of that which we want most, will come among us and lead us to victory. It has happened many times before, so we've learned what to look for. Right now," He indicates the house symbol on the hilt of your blade, " What we want most is best represented as that, a home, either our original home, or taking control of this place as our home. You get to decide which path to choose in the end, how the pahdwen works is the choice of the pahdwen alone."

"Right... so I'm supposed to escort you home and get on my merry way?"

" "Home", our original home, is over 1000 miles to the south of here... and it's currently in the midst of a terrible war, however, taking over this place will not be without its challenges if that is the path you choose..."

You suddenly get nervous about the path lain before you...

>See if there are any sidequests to do around town

"Is there anything you guys need done... you know, before you're returned to power?"

" Oh, yes. There are always a great many things that need to be done around here, underground living is very difficult, particularly when you don't want to be found. If you wish, you can go check with the various people in our little necropolis and see if they need any help. There is repair work you could do, or cooking, or cleaning, or pest removal... pest removal is my personal favorite." He smiles, remembering back. " So, yes, if you want, you can do a great many things for us, we would appreciate it greatly!"

>What do you do?

>Pest Removal.

>See if we can learn more magic than just rhyme-based Polymorph and whatever our LOS did to the killer robot

>Pest Removal

"I'll try my hand at that pest removal you were talking about."

" I don't know if it will be quite as enjoyable for you as it was for me though, with no fangs and I doubt you like the taste of rat... but regardless. Yuri, could you show him to the ratcatcher, you go with them today so nothing bad happens, okay?"

Yuri glares at you a bit, but nods at the snerson.

I really doubt that's the proper term... I think he's some sort of Lamia actually...

You roll your eyes a bit, and start to walk with Yuri while Mitya hands over the mirror to the leader.

>See if we can learn more magic than just rhyme-based Polymorph and whatever our LOS did to the killer robot

As you're walking with Yuri, you try to engage her in a bit of small talk, "So... beyond using the artifacts, how could I learn to use magic?"

" It would not be all that difficult, anyone can learn the craft, but it takes time. Here are the basics you should most likely know about this city immediately: There are five main groups of power-holders throughout the city. You have the water-mages who can be identified by the blue and silver robes they wear, they are essentially lackies to the current ruler, making up a large portion of the police force and military. Then you have the fire-mages who can be identified by their orange robes, they're the scholars and priests and what have you that you might find throughout the city, they are the smallest group. You have the air-mages in grey robes who run various shops and public services. And then you have us, Earth-mages, in our bronze robes, we are the largest group by far when it comes to mages, granted, we're also the poorest... we are the dregs that society wants to be rid of. Lastly, you have the thief's guild, which despite being composed of non-mages, is powerful in a great many dangerous ways, they wear black robes, you met some of them tonight, their numbers roughly double those of all the mages throughout the city combined..."

(Ah, a People's Revolution.)

>Ask: What was that blue drug we got in trouble for?

edited 3rd Jul '15 11:44:16 AM by dvorak

"What type of magic would be the best for me?"

(Sorry for the delay...)

>"What type of magic would be the best for me?"

"What type of magic would be the best for me?"

" So long as you stay with us... Earth magic, it's all we teach. If you decide not to take on the quest lain before you, you're free to search out other mages to teach you... you'll probably need them at that point."

>Ask about the blue drug we got in trouble for

"So..." you say, "What was that vial of blue stuff I got busted for at the front door?"

" ... I really don't think you want to know..."

"No, seriously. Tell me."

Yuri sighs, " It's what you get if you drain a mage of their power... they're typically killed in the process. It can be used in a few different ways: a light enough dose can give a non-mage the sensation of what it feels like to do magic... a powerful enough dose can override someone and kill them."

You fall silent and continue to walk.

>What do you do?

edited 8th Jul '15 7:59:52 AM by GhostElm

(Oh, can I join this?)

(Of course, the more the merrier!)

(Cool, thanks! How far back do I have to go to get the gist of what's going on?)

(Let me see... you could probably just read 4 & 5 for the gist of things)

edited 8th Jul '15 10:09:46 AM by GhostElm

Heavy stuff. No wonder the guard was so mad about it.

>What kind of pests will we be fighting?

• cough*